Is a "Rapist List" a Smart Way to Call Out Sexual Assault or a Dangerous Precedent?

Columbia was recently hit with a lawsuit, filed by 23 students, alleging violations of Title IX, the Clery Act, and Title II, saying the university routinely mishandles sexual assault cases, perpetuating a dangerous and discriminatory environment. Now some students (or maybe just one) seem to be taking matters into their own hands by writing the names of alleged rapists on a bathroom wall and handing out fliers identifying them. The "rapist list" is dividing the campus and pushing the national conversation about sexual assault at college to address uncomfortable questions. Naming and shaming alleged rapists: Is it an act of empowerment in the face of a seemingly indifferent institution or vigilante justice setting a terrible precedent?

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The "rapist list" began showing up over the past week, Columbia's preeminent student blog, Bwog, reported. Initially penned on bathroom walls and washed off like graffiti shortly thereafter, the list is now reportedly being distributed on paper fliers around campus. Some students support publicizing the names of alleged rapists; others caution against the dangers in vigilantism. And some illustrate just how far the campus conversation on rape still has to go: "Maybe, just maybe, the unprecedented shrillness over sexual assault reform comes from uberprivileged white girls who are dealing with their first minor injustice," writes one pseudonymous Bwog commenter.

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The idea of sexual assault as a "minor injustice" akin to peeking at another student's exam underlies much of the frustration around on-campus sexual assault. Universities often encourage students to report sexual assaults to the school itself, and many students prefer to deal with their colleges, which are billed as safe home-away-from-home communities, than with traditional law enforcement, which can entail humiliating investigations and drawn-out trials. Colleges also don't have to use an "innocent until proven guilty" standard, because they aren't putting anyone in jail or handing out criminal convictions. Instead, many colleges use some form of a "preponderance of the evidence" standard for finding fault — that is, if the weight of the evidence points to fault, fault can be found. That can be an easier bar for sexual assault survivors to meet. But colleges have an incentive to keep rape reports on campus too: Public rape trials aren't good for recruiting. University proceedings are also routinely confidential, meaning that if an alleged rape victim gets a bad result, she can't speak out without facing potentially serious consequences, such as suspension or expulsion.

Tracey Vitchers, a communications coordinator with SAFER Campus, an organization founded by Columbia University students in 2000 and dedicated to reforming college sexual assault policies, said the name-and-shame campaigns stem from long-brewing frustrations with the inaction of Columbia's administration. The list of alleged rapists, she said, may push the university to act — but students should be careful.

"Of course there are risks associated with this," Vitchers told Cosmopolitan.com. "If the student who is printing the list is identified, they run the risk of disciplinary action being taken against them, and they run the risk of being sued by the people on the list. Those are challenges that need to be thought out and mitigated."

Without the ability to legally convict students of crimes, colleges institute their own punishments — expulsion, suspension, or loss of other privileges, such as on-campus housing. But colleges also lack the investigative tools that police forces and prosecutors hold, often reducing sexual assault and rape cases to "he said/she said" evidentiary disputes. And that means many accused sexual assailants remain on campus.

Emily May, the executive director of Hollaback, an organization that encourages users to document, map, and share incidents of street harassment — including posting pictures of their harasser — says the "rapist list" is less about allegedly bad individuals and more a response to feeling disempowered and scared.

"It comes from a state of fear and desperation," May told Cosmopolitan.com. "These people obviously feel like the university doesn't have their backs and that their concerns aren't being taken seriously."

May says the list is "a really smart tactic" to get university officials and the broader public to pay attention.

"The thing that's seductive about naming and shaming is the same thing that's really seductive about storytelling in any form," she said. "The human brain can focus in on what Bobby did and the story of Bobby, instead of this epidemic of rape which impacts 1 in 5 women on college campuses. From that perspective, [a name-and-shame list] has the ability to capture the imagination."

But there are downsides too. When you point a finger at Bobby instead of looking at on-campus assaults as a whole, May said, the conversation and debate become about Bobby's individual character — with the guy who had drinks with Bobby and thinks he's a nice guy on one side, and the guy who hates his guts on the other — rather than a question of whether he did what he's accused of doing, and what we can do to prevent assaults more generally.

Even more serious are the reputational and legal harms. Most publications, including this one, will not publish an unedited photo of the rapist list, both out of a sense of professional responsibility and because it could potentially invite a lawsuit. The men named on the list have not been convicted in a court of law. There's a danger in applauding anonymous actors — whose motivations we can guess at but can't know for sure — making serious, public criminal accusations against men who cannot confront their accusers.

And then there's the possibility that this could end up in criminal court or at least at a police station, whether an assault survivor wants it there or not.

"It wouldn't surprise me if [the list of alleged rapists] eventually did get into the hands of the NYPD," Vitcher said. "[The NYPD] has been very outspoken about the fact that colleges and universities don't involve them in these investigations."

Ultimately, May and Vitcher both said, the "rapist list" reflects an action of last resort, borne of frustration with a broken system. And the solution doesn't lie in adding more names to the handful of already there. It requires demanding real policy solutions to address the stark reality — and often faceless statistic — that 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted while in college.

"[The people who wrote the list] are not a mini police force and aren't trying to be one; they're trying to cause a ruckus, which they've been successful at," May said. But while May said the list is a good first move in drawing attention to sexual assault, "the more important piece what's next; not what's the first move, but what's move number two, three and four?"